Mexican Farmers Protest Airport

Published 1:17 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

Residents near Mexico City have erected sandbag barricades and dug six-foot trenches on roads leading into their town to protest plans to build a new airport.

Protesters used heavy construction equipment to break through the asphalt and carve out the trenches earlier this week, local media reported Thursday.

The sandbag barricades have been erected over recent weeks on secondary roads linking communities in an area known as Texcoco, several miles east of Mexico City, to prevent construction crews from entering the planned building site.

Farmers wielding machetes have also staged demonstrations in Mexico City to protest a government order expropriating their land for the new airport.

The expropriation order gives residents as little as 60 cents per square yard of land, a price they call ridiculously low. Many say they oppose the airport regardless of what they are paid.

They have also filed court challenges claiming the government violated the constitution by not consulting with local communities on the project. The airport would swallow up 11,000 acres, covering much of the municipality.

Critics say the six-runway, $2.3 billion airport planned for Texcoco would exacerbate urban sprawl, pave an area that is crucial to regulating floodwaters and harm migrating birds.

Mexico City's current airport, a 91-year-old facility on the eastern edge of town, cannot be expanded because it is bordered on three sides by urban development. Only one runway can be used at a time.